"Insert Snappy Slogan Here"

Everything's Coming Up Roses!

The Autumnal Equinox of 2003 heralded momentous progressive changes in the World Famous Deep Range Fleet! Starbase 901 is once again up and running thanks to the triumphant return of Krystina Stressman to the ranks of the cyber-enabled The USS Eagle is currently undergoing a change in management and promises to get back underway in the not-too-distant future. The USS Victory has returned to activity as well thanks to the efforts of the ship's XO, who has temporarily taken the reigns and started the posting again, pending the hopeful return of Captain Dave Moody. The Leviathan and Copernicus continue on their steady courses. On another front, the DRF has joined forces with the 'Computer Screen Actor's Guild', a new alliance of various RPGs.

See? I told y'all things would get better! :-)

Computer Screen Actor's Guild

The Deep Range Fleet has joined the Computer Screen Actor's Guild (http://www.megiddotrek.com/csag/). The Computer Screen Actor's Guild (CSAG) is an organization that was created to provide a sense of unity among the RPG websites on the Internet. Additionally, it provides a medium in which a standard can be set for RPGs in general.

From the CSAG website:
"The information on this site is the result of years of experience. It has been compiled in order to provide those who visit with a vast resource of helpful material. It is our hope that this site will help provide some cohesion within the RPG community. Whether the site is about Star Trek, Star Wars, Fantasy, Harry Potter, or one of the many other RPG genres on the Internet, it is our intention to provide a means in which the RPG community may continually improve itself, learn from each other and above all, preserve the integrity of the game."

Eventually, they'll have an enormous database full of information that will be beneficial to the RPG owners/Admin to the newest member of an RPG. Since DRF has joined CSAG, all of you in DRF's membership are automatically members yourselves! There are a few benefits to CSAG at this time, even though the group is still in its infancy. For example:

• ALL members of a member RPG are automatically members
• ALL members of a member RPG can register their character(s) with the CSAG Character Database. What this means is that a registered character's name cannot be used by another simmer. Simmers using character names that are already registered with CSAG will not be recognized by CSAG.
• ALL members of a member RPG can register their character in the CSAG Forums. The CSAG forums are only for simmers of CSAG member sites.
• ALL members of a member RPG can utilize the CSAG chat room.
• The CSAG Board of Directors will be amassing information to be used in the TNT (Tips N Tutorials) section for all CSAG members.
• CSAG members that write their own Fan Fiction, of any genre, will be allowed to show it off in the Fan Fiction section of the CSAG site.

For those of you that are members of the DRF and have your own RPG, no matter the genre, this should be something that you should look into. CSAG has the potential to become a vast database full of helpful information, as well as a way to get your RPG's name out to many people, in the very near future.

Those of you that wish it, please feel free to go to the CSAG Website (http://www.megiddotrek.com/csag/ ) and register your character. If you want, check out the Character Database. If you have an image of your character, and yourself, please send it in as well. You can either let the CSAG host your pics or let me know and put it on the DRF website where the CSAG can get it.

It would be great to have a major showing by our DRF personnel!

DRF Player's Gallery

Have you ever wondered who play the other characters in your RPG? Well, now you can find out! Visit the 'Players Gallery' section of the DRF web site. It's a place where you can get to know the 'real people' behind the characters. Do you have a page yet in the Gallery? If not, write one up! You can include anything you want : text, pictures, links to your favorite web sites. Send your info to the DRF at jeffreypike@starfleet-ssf.com. Though it's called the 'Gallery', an embarrassing photo of yourself is not required!

Come on in and introduce yourself—we'd love to meet you!

Stand Up and Be Counted!

There's a new Voting button on the main page of the DRF web site for the CSAG's Toplist. Let's all get on there and cast our votes for our own great RPG group! More votes means a higher ranking in the list, which is better advertising, which means more visitors to our web site, which means more applications being sent in to our ships, which means more fun!

Vote!

Starbase 901
by Krystina Stressman

FINALLY! SB901 is back up and running! I have a working computer once again!

SB901 has just resolved a problem with a virus that was released on the station making everyone fall in love - not always with pleasant results. Kalimar came to the station to kill Katianna once and for all, only to discover he couldn't do it. Security was lost in the throws of their own passions and Medical barely held it together as Ming from the Ronin worked on a cure. A few new relationships have been formed, and others have pushed their current relationships in a few direction.

Now the virus has been neutralized and those behind it discovered. What's left, is dealing with the aftermath and what's awaiting on the horizon, as things heat up with the Mullurans.

USS Leviathan
by Ian Barker

Things are still on track for the end of the season as described in the last newsletter. Our crew is still growing and next season will hopefully start in the next two to three weeks.

The one thing the Leviathan is missing is a full-time first officer and I'd like to make an offer to anyone interested in transferring a character or creating a new one to take on the role to apply ASAP. Rank is negotiable, but I would expect for the first officer to be at least a Lieutenant Commander.

USS Eagle
by Patty Foss

Hello. This is Patty Foss, and I am taking over for my friend Josh Green as Captain of the USS Eagle. We have a bunch of returning crew and a few new characters joining us on this cruise.

We have a new Commander, Mark Harrington. He's been in command of the USS Layton, and has been teaching at Starfleet Academy for the past five years. Captain Young has a different mission from the Eagle at this time. We are on Earth and on the way out of the system we will be picking up a new XO. Everyone, while we finish our refit, consider yourself on leave. We will be getting our briefing from Admiral Krem and heading out on our mission. The stardate will be 6704.21.

Get me all your posts and prepare to kick this off on October 15. Thank you.

USS Victory
by Cyndi Fryar

Following the apparent kidnapping of Commander Rhea Kennit, the Victory-A's First Officer and Captain Utex missing as he attempts to locate the kidnapped Commander, the USS Victory-A and her crew are placed under the command now of the newly assigned First Officer, Commander Kathryn Grey.

Understaffed at present, with her Captain missing and a new First Officer in command, the Victory-A and her crew find themselves ordered to the Minnevora star system to investigate the unthinkable.

Minnevora was a relatively unremarkable star system with five planetoids in orbit and one rather massive gas giant. With no planets capable of sustaining life in this system, however a survey ship discovered that the gas giant, Minnevora III - was surrounded by over 150 rock and ice ring formations believed to have been moons which were destroyed by the gravitational eddies of the planet during the system's formation. The rings proved to be a rich source of rare and useful minerals and metals, prompting the development of an extensive mining operation with just over six thousand civilian workers and their families. The miners also utilize the gases within the atmosphere of Minnivora III, mining hydrogen, helium and methane from its upper atmosphere for use in processing the raw ore from the belts.

Now, for reasons unknown, the orbits of the five rocky planetoids have been altered, and the rings surrounding the gas giant are collapsing inward as they fall into the gas giant's atmosphere. The USS Stennis picked up a distress signal from the mining operation and upon their arrival in system they found. the mass of Minnivora III has been increased by over 10,000 percent and the planet's core temperature has also spiked. Radiation and heat emissions are continuing to rise, and it is estimated that sometime within the next 48 hours the planet will ignite and become a star.

With every ship within the sector enroute to assist with evacuation of the miners and their families, the Victory-A and her crew have been ordered to find out what happened. Was this a natural event? Was it some kind of accident? Had perhaps the mining activities caused the event?"

The crew of the Victory-A must find these answers and more, before this happens again...

Contributions

If you want to write something to be included in the next issue of the Inimitably Superfluous Deep Range Fleet Newsletter, please do so! I'm not picky—it can be about anything in the universe! Got any good advice? Bad advice? Rants or raves? Jokes? News updates? Amusing anecdotes? Great—we'll take it all! Just email it to me at richardmerk@msn.com

HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED